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Posts tagged ‘zonal marking’

Rafa Benitez’s failings came, according to our incisive media, as a result of his squad rotation. Yet that is ignorant of the fact that Ferguson chops and changes his side unpredictably every single game. Ferguson’s command, management and understanding of his squad is so immense in fact, that it is almost impossible to 100% guess the line up he will select for any given game.

Much more so than Benitez, who was essentially rotating full backs or swapping a midfielder or two. Ferguson is the Godfather of picking a team for battle for each individual game. Yet the media lazily and stupidly pointed to Rafa’s rotation as a reason for his side failing, when United last season, where they lost the league on goal difference alone, had no true or ultimate line up at any point.

Likewise, Rafa’s goals conceded were attributed, largely by Alan Hansen (once a defender apparently) to the application of zonal marking, presented by the media as if it were a bizzarre voodoo mysterious way of doing things, unfamilliar and utterly doomed to failure as a result. The fact was however, zonal marking is largely employed as the basis for defending, particularly outside of the Premier League. However, much more Liverpool’s conceded goals were a case of poor execution of zonal marking, individual mistakes, or just bad defending.

Another supposed failing of Wenger is that he never splashes out on peaking powers, or players that are established. Yet the truth is, Ferguson doesn’t do this either. The policy cited already on here ensures that Utd are also builders of talent rather than procurers of it. United’s best players of recent times, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nemanja Vidic, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, David Beckham and Paul Scholes, were all acquired at young ages. So too have Arsenal’s; Robin Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Thierry Henry and Patrick Viera. The difference is that Wenger is being forced to operate firmly in the black as costs of The Emirates stadium inhibit the club still, meaning that he is sometimes forced to sell when he does not want to. Whereas Ferguson retains the power to firmly say no to Madrid if they want Vidic, despite this ultimately losing money, or telling Madrid ‘one more year’ til they can buy Ronaldo, Wenger is not being allowed this priviledge, meaning he is forced to sell players when he doesn’t want to, unlike Ferguson who sells as and when he sees fit.

Perhaps though, the pervading feeling is that if you are winning and competing at the very top, see United getting to the 2011 Champions’ League Final, then everything is forgiven, forgotten and viewed as a success, whereas if you haven’t won anything for 7 years and there’s a dedicated site counting this (http://www.sincearsenallastwonatrophy.co.uk/), then media will go looking through your drawers and asking questions. These questions are often misplaced and off target but nevertheless confirm that winning writes history. And also that Ferguson is incomparable in management ability.